Strengthening extended Gravity constraints with combined systems: $f(R)$ bounds from Cosmology and the Galactic Center

TL;DR

This paper combines cosmological and galactic center data to place new, stronger constraints on $f(R)$ gravity models, demonstrating the benefit of multi-scale astrophysical tests.

Contribution

First combined analysis of $f(R)$ gravity constraints from both cosmology and galactic center star orbits, improving bounds on model parameters.

Findings

Combined constraints yield tighter bounds on $f(R)$ parameters.

Galactic center data enhances cosmological constraints.

Future measurements will further improve these bounds.

Abstract

Extended gravity is widely constrained in different astrophysical and astronomical systems. Since these different systems are based on different scales it is not trivial to get a combined constraint that is based on different phenomenology. Here, for the first time (to the best of our knowledge), we combine constraints for $f(R)$ gravity from late time Cosmology and the orbital motion of the stars around the galactic center. $f(R)$ gravity models give different potentials that are tested directly in the galactic center. The cosmological data set includes the type Ia supernova and baryon acoustic oscillations. For the galactic star center data set we use the published orbital measurements of the S2 star. The constraints on the universal parameter $\beta$ from the combined system give: $\beta_{HS}=0.154 \pm 0.109$ for the Hu-Sawicki model, while $\beta_{St}= 0.309 \pm 0.19 $ for the Starobinsky dark energy model. These results improve on the cosmological results we obtain. The results show that {{\it combined constraint}} from different systems yields a stronger constraint for different theories under consideration. Future measurements from the galactic center and from cosmology will give better constraints on models with $f(R)$ gravity.